QUALIFIED EVANGELISTS

In the days before email, Western Union telegrams were the most effective way to convey an urgent message.  The messenger’s sole obligation was to carry the message to the person to whom it was addressed.  He may not enjoy doing it, especially if the message contained bad news, but he was faithful to deliver it.  He dared not stop along the way, open the envelope and change the wording.  His duty was to deliver the message.  This is the duty of the evangelist.  God has given His Word and the evangelist is to be faithful in their duty to deliver the message.

Like the Gospel of John, the first letter of John has a strong eyewitness characteristic to it.  The Apostle shares with his readers “what they have heard, seen, looked upon, and touched, what was from the beginning, the Word of life made visible.” (1 Jn 1:1-2)

John goes to greater lengths than perhaps any of the other Gospel writers to convince readers through word and deed that Jesus is the One, and his promises are beyond all telling.  He emphatically wants us to know and believe Jesus was truly divine, was truly God made incarnate (human/in-the-flesh), a God who in person walked among us, taught us everything important, what true love is, and then completed the greatest sacrifice ever made on behalf of the human family.

It was love that through John developed by his first hand experiences with Jesus.  His calling from his fishing nets, time traveling with and teachings of Jesus.  John saw him die and he looked into the empty tomb.  This is what drove John to evangelize so tirelessly.

I can hear some of us now speaking in our hearts, “I’m no John” or “I’m not qualified to be and evangelist.”  Here’s the qualifications of the first evangelists found in Luke 2:15-20.  Unreliable.  Untrustworthy.  Uneducated.  Ceremonially Unclean.  The shepherds at the time of Jesus did not have a good reputation. Their status did not even allow them to testify in the court of law.  Yet as Jesus lay in a dirty manger, cared for by a teenage mother and an overwhelmed and probably slightly internally conflicted father, it was the shepherds whom God chose to minister to the child and family, then spread what was probably the most important news in history up to that point.

This type of evangelism is just as important today.  As baptized Christians it is our duty to evangelize.  Today, take some time to contemplate what you’ve seen and heard to spur your belief in and love for Jesus, the Incarnate Word?  It’s this faith in and love of Jesus that makes us qualified evangelists.

ARE YOU READY?

[1]“Are you ready?” the instructor asked. I remember the heart racing fear I felt, stepping to the open door of the plane.  The sun was bright, the sound of the wind and the engine were loud.  My heart was pounding as the tandem instructor said even louder, “Are you ready?” In my mind, the months of waiting, co-worker hype, rock songs, heavy workouts, prayers and mental preparation had all come down to this ONE moment.  Was I ready?  A hundred questions were racing through my head in an instant. “Would I be able to breathe?  Would the parachute open?  Will my faith be rewarded, or my fears confirmed?  Do I trust God?  Am I ready, to meet ... you know ... Him?”

“We’re going on three”, the instructor yelled, … ONE! and we were somersaulting out the door!  There was no time to think.  I felt a warm sensation; an unexplained rush of love came over me as we were free-falling through the air!  My heart filled with joy as I openly embraced and abandoned myself to the experience.  The world looked so different from this perspective.  There was a calm and peacefulness.  As the parachute opened and the wind faded, I looked out over the countryside in awe.  I felt safe, secure and strangely loved as if creation itself was smiling at me.  

As we touched down and I tumbled forward, the instructor grabbed me by my straps and pulled me up on my feet.  I’d forgotten all my earlier worries, doubts, and fears, I breathed in fully and raised my hands in triumph!  Marveling in the movement of complete joy, the feeling of freedom.

In contrast, John the Baptist, who lived most of this life outdoors free from confines, now finds himself imprisoned in a cell.  He must have felt trapped, with no hope of finding a way out.  He had to be wondering if his life’s work had come to nothing.  Maybe he was just running out of patience or feeling his hope beginning to fade.  So, he sends messengers to ask Jesus, “Are you the one who is to come or should we look for another?” (Mt 11:3) Now Jesus could have easily responded, “I AM.”  Instead, Jesus responds, “Go and tell John what you hear and see.” (Mt 11:4) Will John believe in Jesus through these works?  Can we, Jesus’ later disciples, believe in the Jesus who restores God’s creation to wholeness?

Let face it, we’re living in troubling times.  Over the last decade we’ve experienced 9/11 and multiple school and mass shootings.  Domestic violence, violence against law enforcement officers, and suicide among our youth and military members are on the rise.  We seem to be living in fear, wondering when and where the next attack will come.  Our patience is worn thin and it seems we get on one another’s nerves more easily.  At this depressing moment in history, what does God say in today’s readings? 

Isaiah says to those who are frightened: “Be strong, fear not!  Here is your God, he comes with vindication.” (Is 35:4) James tells us we must be patient and steady our hearts, because the coming of the Lord is at hand.[2]  Are you ready?

The Gospel is inviting us to ponder whether there are any places of bondage within ourselves, any part of our being that lives with less freedom, less fullness, less wholeness than God intends.  I can think of occasions when I’ve struggled within an institutional system or times when I gave away my power.  Can you recall seasons when you’ve became so entangled in situations that it just exhausted you?

John challenges us to ask: Whatever our circumstance, how does God call us to live with freedom, with hope, with complete trust in the One who came to proclaim release to the captives?  Is there some part of your mind, your spirit, your soul living in confinement?  What news of Christ, what word of hope, is God offering in that place of confinement?  What is one tiny step that would lead to greater freedom?[3]

Are you ready?  In this season of expectation and incarnation, how might God be calling you into places where others live in bondage and captivity, to speak the news of liberation?  Especially for those who may have lost a love one and this is their first Christmas without them; those forgotten, left to the fringes of society, those literally imprisoned, or those who wear the seasonal mask but are harboring feelings of unworthiness to approach God’s mercy and love.

When Jesus’ message came back to John, it gave him the hope and courage to face whatever might come. The same message is for us today who continue our preparation to celebrate not just the coming of Christ at Christmas, but fully embracing a call to a life-long vocation to service, to Him who is coming and His children. 

Put all your worries, doubts, and fears aside, trust in God who has been and is faithful forever.  With this freedom we will be able to lift our hands triumphantly to saying with Isaiah, we “see the glory of the Lord, the splendor of our God.” (Is 35:2) Are you ready? 

---

[1] New American Bible, Saint Joseph Edition © 1986.  Scriptures: Isaiah 35:1-6a, 10; James 5:7-10; Matthew 11:2-11

[2] Sundays with Jesus. Prepare the Way of the Lord by James DiGiacomo, SJ © 2007.  Paulist Press, NJ

[3] Naked, and You Clothed Me, Edited by Deacon Jim Knipper © 2013.  “When John heard in prison what the Messiah was doing…” by Jan L. Richardson.

JUDGED A LIGHT

“People judge according to what they see, and they see what they want. Therefore, we end up judging that which we envy or want.” ~Lao Tse. We all do it. Everybody makes value judgments in their daily lives and their relationships. After all it’s a natural need to evaluate and control the unknown. 

I recall seeing a statue of John the Baptist in a church. The artist had taken to heart the description of John found in Matthew 3:4, clothing him in camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist.   Locusts were on him and bees buzzed around the beehive at his feet. Ascetically, John was not appealing and he was judged to be possessed by evil spirits. 

I’ve also seen a photo of a happy, smiling Jesus that coined the dictum: “Jesus was either going to, at, or coming away from a banquet.” Jesus the banqueter displayed the inclusive quality of God’s kingdom—always for sinners, only to be judged as a glutton. 

Many of Jesus’ listeners didn’t want to play as though at a funeral (John’s call to repentance) or at a wedding (Jesus announcing the Kingdom of God is at hand). They judged the teachings of both John and Jesus as outlandishly demanding and dismissed them with fiendish soundbites. 

Little is known about St. Lucy, whose memorial we celebrate today, other than she came from the island of Sicily and died in the year 304.  There’s proof she was beloved by the early Christians because her name is prayed in the first Eucharistic Prayer at Mass. 

Tradition tells us she decided to never marry, to devote her life entirely to prayer and service to the Lord. Her mother tried to arrange for Lucy to marry a pagan man, but Lucy refused and gave away the dowry money to the poor. This generosity sparked the rage of her fiancé. Lucy was judged and sentenced to a brothel to violate her vow of virginity, but the guards who came to take her away were unable to move her.  They even tried hitching her to a team of oxen to get her to move to no avail.  The guards then heaped bundles of wood around to burn her, but wood wouldn't burn.  They finally resorted to their swords, and Lucy met her death. 

St. Lucy’s name means “light” or “lucid”.  Despite how the world judged John, Jesus, and St. Lucy they remained faithful, a light, to the service of God’s glory.  When we are in harmony with ourselves, are satisfied with who we are, and what we have there is no need to judge others.  As we continue our Advent preparations, may we be judged a light that glorifies the coming Messiah.